SEF's mission is to maintain and enhance the high quality of a Summit, New Jersey public school education through community funding of innovative and essential educational programs, a close working relationship with the school district, and careful review, evaluation and financial oversight of supported initiatives.

Thanks to an SEF grant, the World Language Department at LCJSMS has added a new pop-up theatre and puppets for use in classrooms and for presentations in the elementary schools.The theatre serves as a creative tool to assist students in engaging in foreign language conversation and dialogue. Timothy Margiotta, LCJSMS Spanish teacher and the grant's author, explains that, "The theatre helps to lower anxiety for students speaking the target language, and acts as an effective filter because students are behind the curtain of the theatre. The puppet theatre gives students a comfort level and helps draw students out."Find out more here!

Stewart Inspires Elementary Students

An SEF grant brought Melissa Stewart, a prolific writer of predominantly nature-reflated books to all five elementary schools to discuss the non-fiction writing process with students in grades 3 through 5. Franklin librarian Loreli Stochaj said, "Melissa Stewart infused her presentations with strategies she uses for writing her non-fiction books. Interspersed with references to her books which the students read in the library leading up to her visit, she described how each book is unique and how she must figure out a way to make the unfamiliar familiar, while also intriguing the reader."Read more about this exciting visit here!

Summit Bd of Ed Recognizes SEF

The Summit Board of Education presented SEF with an official resolution in appreciation of 25 years of service and grants totaling over $760,000 during the 2014-2015 school year. Read all about it here!

[ALERT]

Spring 2015 Grant Cycle Announced

SEF is pleased to award 19 grants to the Summit Schools this spring, totaling over $489,000. Thank you to all of our donors and congratulations to all grant writers. To view a list of grants click here.

"Students can now utilize this tool in my classroom and at home to fully incorporate it into their learning. They can annotate the lesson in a program like Notability or Topnotes, taking the teacher notes and media and making it more personal and relevant to them." -- Matthew Ramstedt, 7th Grade Social Studies Teacher, LCJSMS, commenting on iPads

"We enjoy implementing the program every day, mostly to begin our mornings. My class "DJs" enjoy having the special job of facilitating the music daily. I find it helps calm our moods and stress levels. Thank you very much to SEF for providing us with the gift of music." --Lori Alfone, 3rd Grade Teacher, Franklin Elementary Teacher

"Every time I see Dr. McCauley work it is worth fifteen hours of graduate level music class. He has the ability to teach and inspire like no other person. He is an incredibly dynamic teacher and the students got so much out of it.” --Steven Rapp, SHS music teacher commenting on guest conductor funded by SEF grant.

at SHS, students would miss out on the opportunity to celebrate each other's work."--Emma Cramer, Editor-in-Chief, 12th grade

"The new books SEF funded for our mystery unit are like birthday presents to our readers. There is an energy and excitement when I tell them we have new books for our classroom library."--Dana Folk, 3rd grade Washington teacher

“Human Rights Day was an eye opening experience and introduced me to real life events as they are actually occurring. To be exposed to someone like Ron Haviv and his images was a learning experience that I will never forget.”--Matthew Miller, 12th grade

"The Science Research Program gives me the unique opportunity to explore my interests in depth, which I would be unable to do otherwise. I have been able to research a topic that I'm interested in and create an authentic project around it. Going to the science fairs was an excellent experience."